This month is the 200th anniversary of the British capture of Washington, DC, and the torching of the White House. How did this disaster happen, despite ample warnings? A CIA analyst who poured through historical documents blames the same types of intelligence failures that preceded Pearl Harbor and September 11th.

The British invasion of Washington, DC, on August 24, 1814, was a surprise attack that shouldn’t have been a surprise. The two nations were in a state of war; Britain’s defeat of Napoleon in 1814 allowed it to commit its military entirely to its campaign against the U.S., and, most importantly, the British had landed forces that were within striking distance of America’s capital city. The capture of Washington, DC, wasn’t just a defeat for the U.S.; it was, in retrospect, an embarrassing failure.

Since it seems to be getting more and more difficult by the day to find objective, well-researched information, this is part of my ongoing effort to locate & share resources I feel might be of interest to LGF readers.1

I stumbled upon this quarterly journal, Global Security Studies (GSS), after following a footnote link in Wikipedia this morning

From their “About GSS” page:

Global Security Studies (GSS) publishes high-quality, academic and scholarly research, as well as professional articles in all areas of global security studies including in such areas as international and national security, military and defense, intelligence, human security, corporate and law enforcement, environmental, food and health security, and homeland security and defense. All articles submitted to and published in Global Security Studies (GSS) undergo a rigorous, peer-reviewed process. […]

The papers cover everything from Latin America to the IRA, the Balkans, Africa & the Middle East, China, Southeast Asia, and the radicalization of youth in North America & Western Europe. Before deciding to post this Page, I skimmed through several of the papers and all seemed to present their subjects in a way that was engaging, not overly dry or academic.

Reference works are provided in the endnotes of each paper. Additionally, according to the Instructions for Authors page, “All manuscripts will be reviewed by three members of the Editorial Board or qualified outside reviewers.”

The Emergence of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Effectiveness of the US Counterterrorism Efforts

Cyber-Security: The Threat of the Internet

Syria, Iran, and Hizballah: A Strategic Alliance

The Legality behind Targeted Killings and the Use of Drones in the War on Terror

The Impact of CIA Drone Strikes and the Shifting Paradigm of U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy

Radicalization of Youth as a Growing Concern for Counter-Terrorism Policy

1. Instead of wasting time complaining in the main threads or on Twitter about how awful things are and how wrong everyone is, I feel it’s more productive & beneficial for LGF and, more importantly (at least to me), for myself to keep my eyes open for good sources, then pursue and share them. Oh, I’m sorry—was that too passive aggressive? My apologies. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately, so I must be coming down with a touch of it. //

Question: “A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does this say about society?”

Marissa Powell: “I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are … continuing to try to strive to [epic pause] figure out how to create jobs right now. That is the biggest problem. And I think, especially the men are … um … seen as the leaders of this, and so we need to try to figure out how to create educate better so we can solve this problem. Thank you.”

There are too many people outside of the US Government who have access to Top Secret and above classified information. There is little allegiance to employers and our national security is at risk, evidenced by what happened with Booz Allen Hamilton. Federal employees are vetted by the US Government and not by an private firm, whose only allegiance is to making a profit, which endangers the entire country by hiring sub-par employees.

In addition, we are paying private contractors significantly more than a government employee would make. This would reduce spending as well as making our nation safer.

EiMitchI signed because I kinda felt sorry for how few signatures its gotten. A ridiculous reason to sign? It would've been if I had a dog in this race. Why not? First of all, leaks like Snowden are inevitable from ...

The bottom line is that a political debate will never be resolved by measuring the IQs of groups on each side of the issue. Even if certain positions tend to be held by less intelligent people, there will usually be plenty of sharp thinkers who take the same side. Rather than focus on the intellectual deficiencies, real or imagined, of certain politicians and their supporters, people should strive to find the best and brightest spokesmen for the opposing side.

With the horrifying images of the Boston Marathon bombing still much too fresh in our minds, and with citywide marathons coming up this weekend in London, Hamburg, and Salt Lake City, law enforcement officers and citizens everywhere are asking how to prevent the tragedy from being repeated.

As Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs adjunct professor Abraham Wagner observed last year, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, there’s “no magic bullet or perfect solution to this thorny problem.”

There are basically two ways to ferret out would-be bombers: early intelligence and onsite detection. Both have technical and procedural dimensions. Steady improvements on both fronts since 2001 seem to be reducing the probability that terrorists will succeed, though the effectiveness of available strategies and techniques is still woefully short of 100 percent. Wagner says that police and intelligence work have uncovered about 45 plots since September 2001, and may have discouraged a number of others.

Intelligence

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) are probably the most effective tools for stopping terrorism. Human intelligence may account for most of the success so far, but technology plays a part—albeit a controversial one. Signals intelligence—monitoring digital traffic (who sends what and how much to whom) and even intercepting messages on cell phones, e-mail, and social media—can provide advance warning. Communications monitoring efforts (like Carnivore, which debuted in the early-2000s, but was reportedly replaced by a commercial packet-sniffing tool) have generated negative headlines and lawsuits as well as investigative leads. The FBI’s Stingray cell phone monitoring program provoked privacy suits that are still being reviewed by U.S. District Courts. And the National Security Letters issued by the FBI—which force firms, including those who operate e-mail and cellular telephony services, to turn over customer information without notifying the customers—are coming under increased scrutiny.

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

I don’t expect to die anytime soon. But it could happen this moment, while I am writing. I was talking the other day with Jim Toback, a friend of 35 years, and the conversation turned to our deaths, as it always does. “Ask someone how they feel about death,” he said, “and they’ll tell you everyone’s gonna die. Ask them, In the next 30 seconds? No, no, no, that’s not gonna happen. How about this afternoon? No. What you’re really asking them to admit is, Oh my God, I don’t really exist. I might be gone at any given second.”

Me too, but I hope not. I have plans. Still, illness led me resolutely toward the contemplation of death. That led me to the subject of evolution, that most consoling of all the sciences, and I became engulfed on my blog in unforeseen discussions about God, the afterlife, religion, theory of evolution, intelligent design, reincarnation, the nature of reality, what came before the big bang, what waits after the end, the nature of intelligence, the reality of the self, death, death, death.

The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.

The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.

When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 “collectors” in positions around the world, an unprecedented total for an agency whose presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent years.

The total includes military attachés and others who do not work undercover. But U.S. officials said the growth will be driven over a five-year period by the deployment of a new generation of clandestine operatives. They will be trained by the CIA and often work with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, but they will get their spying assignments from the Department of Defense.

Among the Pentagon’s top intelligence priorities, officials said, are Islamist militant groups in Africa, weapons transfers by North Korea and Iran, and military modernization underway in China.

“This is not a marginal adjustment for DIA,” the agency’s director, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, said at a recent conference, during which he outlined the changes but did not describe them in detail. “This is a major adjustment for national security.”

The sharp increase in DIA undercover operatives is part of a far-reaching trend: a convergence of the military and intelligence agencies that has blurred their once-distinct missions, capabilities and even their leadership ranks.

An Army private charged in the biggest security breach in U.S. history testified Thursday that he felt like a doomed, caged animal after he was arrested in Baghdad for allegedly sending classified information to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks.

Pfc. Bradley Manning testified on the third day of a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore. His lawyers are seeking dismissal of all charges, contending his pretrial confinement in a Quantico, Va., Marine Corps brig was needlessly harsh.

Before he was sent to Quantico in July 2010, Manning spent some time in a cell in a segregation tent at Camp Arifjan, an Army installation in Kuwait.

“I remember thinking I’m going to die. I’m stuck inside this cage,” Manning said under questioning by defense attorney David Coombs. “I just thought I was going to die in that cage. And that’s how I saw it — an animal cage.”

The compact, 24-year-old intelligence analyst looked youthful in his dark blue dress uniform, close-cropped hair and rimless eyeglasses. He was animated, often swiveling in the witness chair and gesturing with his hands.

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Justice Department Spokesman Marc Raimondi released the following statement Tuesday: "Three documents - a criminal Information, a plea agreement, and a statement of facts - were filed today in the United States District Court for the Western District of ...

Morgan Whitaker exposes where wingnuts are getting their "information" on "the evil, un-American, Kenyan, Marxist Muslim" Obama. This story is about a year old, but its still relevant today. David Jackson, of Belmont, NC, does not like President Obama. He ...

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What, precisely, is this woman's major malfunction? For going on 30 years, she has been the target of every strange conspiracy theory that the half-bright mind of man can dream up. She knows they're out there, pining to have ...

Jeb Bush has been adamant that he will not switch his positions on two issues, immigration and Common Core standards, that will generate conservative opposition in the Republican primaries. But he just made a major concession to conservatives on ...

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Samsung over what it says is the recording of private conversations in homes through the company's television sets. The privacy rights group filed a complaint with ...

From the National Center for Science Education House File 272, introduced in the Iowa House of Representatives on February 17, 2015, and referred to the House Committee on Education, would, if enacted, prevent Iowa from adopting the Next Generation ...

When journalist Chai Jing released her documentary on China's air pollution, she probably could not have dreamed that her message would resonate so widely while boosting the share prices of so many "environmentally friendly" companies. On Monday, more than ...

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Added bold is all mine. this was an awkward way to go about gun control anyway. It clearly impacts the law abiding far more than felons, and is by that definition inefficient and intrusive at best. Gonna have to do ...